Manchester Camerata at The Monastery in Gorton

Music Matters

Tom Service travels to the Monastery in Gorton, the new home of the Manchester Camerata, to find out how the orchestra is embedding in to the community. Gorton was once the engine-room of the world as it kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, building the engines for the cotton mills. Having since suffered from socio-economic decline, Gorton is now being regenerated and the Manchester Camerata is doing something very new in its move to The Monastery, providing a weekly Music Café for local residents living with Dementia, making lasting connections with a local youth charity, and providing affordable concert tickets for the local community.

Andreas Staier has just released a new disc of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2. Tom talks to Andreas about Bach’s decision to compile a second book of Preludes and Fugues for keyboard and how the work fits in his overall output, and especially his later works.

Tom also visits director of Dash Arts, Josephine Burton, and musicians Yuriy Gurzhy & Mariana Sadovska, as they rehearse for their new work, Songs for Babyn Yar. He finds out about the horrors of Babyn Yar and talks to the musicians about how they are creating a fitting musical memorial to this dark chapter in Ukrainian Holocaust history.

We also hear from Claire Mera-Nelson, Director of Music for Arts Council England, about the findings of a new 'Creating a more Inclusive Classical Music' report, launched as part of the Fair and Inclusive Classical Music project.